The present invention relates to capturing digital images which can be used to form panoramic images.
A variety of composing and display systems have been commercialized to create and view panoramic images. In Byte magazine, May 1995 issue, an article xe2x80x9cSee You Aroundxe2x80x9d on page 85-90 describes software programs operating on digitally stored files having a panoramic view. The systems create a immersive image with a 360 degree field of view by knitting together overlapping images or from a single 360 degree field of view image. Another system from IPIX Corporation uses a photographic camera to capture two complementary 180 degree views with a fish-eye lens. An IPIX computer program knits digital data from the two 180 degree views and corrects for optical distortion from the fish-eye lens to generate a digital 360 degree panoramic view.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,113 discloses a mount for an image capture device with sequentially indexed motion through 360 degrees of rotation. The frame can hold either a silver halide or electronic cameras. U.S. Pat. No. 5,650,813 discloses a rotating optical system that scans a panoramic view onto an electronic sensor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,073 discloses a set of cameras facing in various directions. The image data from the cameras is transformed to remove distortion in the over lapping images and creates a panoramic scene. Control circuitry selects a portion of the panoramic images through a display device having separate image streams to each of the viewer""s eyes.
The prior art requires dedicated apparatus to capturing a panoramic image.
It is an object of the present invention to capture a panoramic image with a camera not equipped with a panoramic capture feature.
This object is achieved by apparatus for processing a stored panoramic digital image comprising:
(a) panoramic digital imaging means being adapted to capture a predetermined panoramic digital image of a scene,
(b) storage means coupled to the panoramic digital imaging means for storing a panoramic digital image;
(c) display means coupled to the storage means for displaying the stored panoramic digital image; and
(d) means for receiving a camera having photographic film including optic means for focusing the panoramic image on the display onto silver halide film in the camera.
The present invention provides an effective way of capturing panoramic images by a photographic camera using silver halide film which does not have a panoramic feature. A further advantage is that full 360 degree panoramic images can be captured on the silver halide film when using a conventional camera.